New Yorker who now lives in Minnesota

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December in NY

Sofar Sounds Concert on December 5, 2015 – Sophie and I showed up to the venue on the Lower East Side, which ended up being an office space with millenials seated on the floor crowded around a make-shift stage. We squished onto the floor, joining the ranks, and heard three bands: Julietta, The Gantry, Igbo. I think the first two are great and are going places. The first reminded me of Lorde. The latter reminded me of Mumford&Sons and Avett Brothers but more rock-y.

Sofar Sounds organizes these impromptu concerts, secretive shows that are not open to the public, that guests can attend through entering a lottery on their website for tickets. You don’t know who’s playing until you arrive and you don’t know the venue of the concert until the day before – was one of the better nights I’ve ever had in New York, and cost nothing.

Nutcracker Rouge – hilarious characters, impressive dancing, singing, and circus – trapeze, lyra, and some pole dancing. Company XIV performed one of the best holiday shows I’ve seen. It made us laugh, smile and gawk at their bodies as the muscles literally were popping out of the barely there costumes.

Hand of God – broadway play with puppets. I’m not a fan of puppets and never have been. It was interesting to see Bob Saget on stage as a priest and not on Full House or doing some filthy stand-up, although there still is some raunchy humor we enjoyed. Tyrone, the wild aggressive puppet becomes the outlet for the protagonist’s struggles. In short, organized religion cannot fix everyone’s problems and people need to express their emotions because when their pent up, things go crazy bad.

Restaurants:

Empellón – good pear and cucumber margaritas. I didn’t love the queso fundido. It was your average melted cheese that did the lactose-sensitive stomach no good and no exciting flavor, despite the shishito peppers. Their strong suit, in which they excel, is the tacos. The mushroom-filled ones were my favorite.

Red Farm – creative and different Chinese food on the UWS. I tried so many different kinds of dumplings that I felt like a dumpling. Soup dumplings, duck and crab dumplings, pac-man shaped shrimp dumplings, vegetable dumplings, so much food.

Candle Café – It has become our neighborhood vegan staple. The portobello au poivre looks like a pile of grey murky mushroom slices with ambiguous and flavorless sauce. Everything else I love.

Maison Kayser – “they have the best baguette in all of New York City” J.T.

; Movies

Spotlight: important movie, story that needs to be told. However, I was not in a good mindset to see it.

Carol: While Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are fantastic, hard for me to imagine a society where love is considered that forbidden and immoral.

Sisters: solid and silly Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

Joy: cheers for female empowerment and female entrepreneurship but needed to cut a 20/30 minutes out of the movie. or make the plot line a little more intricate.